health illness continuum essay

Health-Illness Continuum and Patient Experience Essay

The health-illness continuum belongs to the number of concepts in healthcare that facilitate patient evaluations and allow generalizing on clients’ condition. Proposed more than forty years ago, the idea changed the ways to understand health and reduced unnecessary simplification in that regard. This essay examines the concept in question with reference to patient health and human experience and illustrates its applications to individuals’ health situation.

The continuum explains the meaning of wellbeing and establishes connections between its key components, such as physical, emotional, and mental states. Travis proposed the perspective in the 1970s, stating that it was not beneficial to patient outcomes when healthcare providers regarded health as a dichotomy (Penwell-Waines, Greenawald, & Musick, 2018). The dichotomous approach is limited in its ability to improve people’s health since the ability to eliminate disease and symptoms that reduce patients’ quality of life is seen as the final goal to be reached (Penwell-Waines et al., 2018). Within the framework of the health-illness continuum, the absence of conditions that affect everyday life is perceived as the neutral point between illness and health.

In a good measure, the elimination of disease is the responsibility of healthcare providers whose concerted efforts help patients to reach the mentioned neutral point. After that, the extent to which a person is conscious of his or her health becomes an important variable predicting further progress on the path of reaching high-level wellness (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015). To pass the point of neutral health that presents false wellness, people are expected to research their personal health risks. Then, moving to high-level health involves engaging in self-study activities to be able to select healthy lifestyle practices that would be beneficial in specific situations (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015). Therefore, as people move across the illness-wellness continuum, the degree of their responsibility for health outcomes tends to increase.

Summarizing the basic facts about the health-illness continuum, it is possible to say that its relevance to patient health is linked to the prevention of disease recurrence. More specifically, since the continuum goes beyond the dichotomous perspectives of health and illness, it provides new opportunities to implement measures that address health risks in advance (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015). For instance, when a patient finally achieves the point of neutral health, he or she can be encouraged to move in a forward direction by focusing on self-education and lifestyle improvement. In many cases, this approach can help to reinforce the results of treatment and care provided by specialists.

The concept is relevant to the human experience in healthcare since the use of the health-illness continuum allows encouraging patient participation in the process of wellness improvement. The quality of this experience is predicted by numerous factors, including the ability to reach positive long-term results for patients (Jason, 2017). With that in mind, the continuum is important to consider since it outlines the key steps to be taken after the end of treatment under professional supervision (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015). To facilitate the achievement of stable and positive health outcomes, it is possible to use the discussed perspective to make patients realize that they can make invaluable contributions to their wellbeing. Therefore, when taken into account, the health continuum can improve the human experience by impacting the lasting results of treatment.

The health-illness continuum is the idea that allows monitoring physical and mental wellness. As for my current state of health, there are no obvious factors and problems that prevent my organ systems from functioning properly. In particular, timely visits to healthcare specialists and attempts to follow medical advice carefully significantly reduced the impact of the health problems that I used to have. Among the behaviors that support my wellbeing today are the readiness to go for regular medical examinations and the constant acquisition of knowledge peculiar to health. More than that, I can call myself a goal-oriented person since I exercise on a regular basis to stay active and full of energy.

To continue, there are specific factors detracting me from achieving high-level wellness. They include, for instance, the presence of unhealthy sleep patterns during the periods of stress. Moreover, being busy with different tasks, I sometimes fail to cook healthy food, which makes my current diet far from perfect and causes the limited consumption of vegetables and fruits. As for wellbeing estimates, on a scale from zero (disease) to ten (optimal wellness), I would give my current condition a rating of seven. In general, my health is good, but there is still room for improvement, and these efforts should be focused on proper nutrition and stress management.

Numerous options and resources can be used to solve the abovementioned issues and approach optimal wellness. To begin with, I can get online and offline nutrition consultations or study the principles of healthy eating using scientific literature (Gesser-Edelsburg & Shalayeva, 2017). Optimal health is impossible without proper nutrition, and this is why the mentioned options are so important (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015). Such resources will increase my chances to achieve wellness by helping me to understand and address some nutrition mistakes that can give rise to health issues gradually.

To move toward high-level wellness, it is possible to seek the assistance of local mental health professionals or even yoga teachers. I experience stress from time to time, and delving into well-known approaches to stress management can help me to reduce its negative impact on my emotional and physical condition, including occasional sleeping problems. Learning new stress reduction techniques will cause improvements in both physical and mental health, thus giving me more energy to live a wellness lifestyle on a daily basis.

To sum it up, the health-illness continuum is an important perspective that reduces the oversimplification of wellness in healthcare. In nursing practice, this idea should be considered due to its potential effects on long-term treatment outcomes and patients’ awareness of the principles of healthy living. Personally, I am in good health, but my dietary habits and stress coping strategies need to be altered to continue moving toward wellness.

Gesser-Edelsburg, A., & Shalayeva, S. (2017). Internet as a source of long-term and real-time professional, psychological, and nutritional treatment: A qualitative case study among former Israeli Soviet Union immigrants. Journal of Medical Internet Research , 19 (2), e33.

Grénman, M., & Räikkönen, J. (2015). Well-being and wellness tourism – same, but different? Conceptual discussions and empirical evidence. The Finnish Journal of Tourism Research , 11 (1), 7-25.

Jason, A. (2017). The patchwork perspective: A new view for patient experience. Patient Experience Journal , 4 (3), 1-3.

Penwell-Waines, L., Greenawald, M., & Musick, D. (2018). A professional well-being continuum: Broadening the burnout conversation. Southern Medical Journal , 111 (10), 634-635.

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Universal Health Care — The Importance of the Health-Illness Continuum

The Importance of The Health-illness Continuum

Categories: Universal Health Care

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Words: 528 |

Published: Jan 31, 2024

Words: 528 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Introduction, a. definition and explanation of the health-illness continuum, b. mental health and the health-illness continuum, c. societal implications of the health-illness continuum, d. importance of preventative measures and early intervention.

World Health Organization. (2021). Mental health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health#tab=tab_1
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Chronic diseases in America. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/index.htm

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Examining the Health-Illness Continuum

Introduction, promotion of the value, dignity, and human flourishing, reflecting on the overall state of health, the options and resources.

The health-illness continuum is a concept that reflects a person’s overall wellness graphically. Presented by John W. Travis in 1972, this model is a continuous and non-static system of transitional human states from the movement of the bottom to the center, the top, or the reverse (Kishan, 2020). In this case, it is essential to note that throughout life, an individual tends to experience various health conditions and diseases. Thus, the health-illness continuum demonstrates this change procedure in an accessible, systematic, and logical form. Moreover, there is a wide range of different levels of illnesses and health, and well-being does not always mean the absence of ailments since the human body is a rather powerful and multifaceted mechanism.

The perspective is one of the most significant concerning human experience and health from a deep understanding of a person’s condition and eliminating existing gaps in patient care. In medical practice, such modeling of transitional states allows one to comprehend, define, analyze, and predict the correlation of inflammatory processes with healing. In particular, this approach is vital for obtaining the necessary biological information at the level of detail required for detecting and diagnosing ailments. For example, determining the disease’s stages will allow a medic to get a more comprehensive and accurate picture of a multifactorial, chronic condition. In addition, according to Kishan (2020), the health-illness continuum is the key to going beyond neutrality to achieve a high level of recovery in physical, mental, or moral terms. Consequently, this model gives nurses or doctors advantages for implementing effective and efficient assistance to a patient in moving up the scale. In general, the duties of this concept are not limited, and its role is exceptionally relevant and influential in the healthcare environment.

Primarily, it is essential to note that understanding and awareness of the essence, meaning, and idea of the health-illness continuum allow a healthcare provider to promote the values and dignity of citizens to achieve prosperity and well-being of society by fostering preventive treatment that improves an individual’s well-being before the first signs of a particular disease, as well as teaching patients to be aware of potential problems, avoiding pathologies and premature death. As practice shows, focusing on disease prevention brings positive results in terms of reducing the prevalence of illnesses, adverse outcomes as well as health care costs to redistribute funds to other equally important needs of people (Mace et al., 2022). Therefore, comprehending the characteristics of the health-illness continuum can become a strategy for improving the quality of life and increasing the lifespan of individuals or groups for full functioning in society and interaction with people.

The behavior that supports the student’s health is based on proper nutrition, physical activity, psycho-hygiene, the exclusion of harmful substances, and regular preventive examinations for early detection of diseases and timely treatment. In particular, healthy life is associated with three essential elements as quality sleep, an appropriate diet, and moderate physical activity, the combination of which makes it possible to improve a person’s mental and physical condition (Wickham et al., 2020). In contrast, behavior within the framework of insufficient quantity and quality of sleep, periodic alcohol consumption, untimely consumption of food following the “internal clock of the body,” experiencing stress at work, and several other aspects worsen health and well-being. Therefore, in this case, a special approach is required to correct this behavior and exclude several phenomena included in such behavior.

According to the author of this paper, at present, their state of health and body is at the neutral stage of the health-illness continuum. Hence, this means that there are no visible signs of any diseases but, at the same time, demonstrates the potential for moving up the scale for the better. Consequently, the decision to move towards optimal health and a high level of well-being depends on the medical student.

Among the available effective and efficient options for promoting well-being, one can single out an established lifestyle based on rational nutrition, a physically active life, giving up bad habits, emotional well-being, the allocation of time for rest, and much more. Accordingly, the resources in this situation will be the skills to take care of oneself, as well as knowledge about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. These options and resources are significant and invaluable, ensuring the health of not only the student but also the whole of society. Therefore, the main thing in a healthy lifestyle is the active creation of health, including all its components.

Without any doubt, the above aspects will help the student move towards well-being through the implementation of conditions for ensuring physical, mental, and social well-being in a natural environment and active longevity. Taking note of the indicated options and resources, the student creates the best conditions for the normal course of physiological and mental processes, reducing the likelihood of various diseases and increasing the quality and duration of life. This will help fulfill some goals and objectives, successfully implement plans, cope with difficulties, and, if necessary, colossal overloads.

Summarizing the above information, it is necessary to state that the health-illness continuum is a system illustrating the state of human health. Its importance and significance are mainly expressed in the health system. Understanding this concept, a medical specialist has the opportunity to direct his actions and decisions for the benefit of an individual, a group, and the whole society. Moreover, the author of this work is in a neutral position on the continuum and plans to move to a higher level in terms of health.

Kishan, P. (2020). Yoga and spirituality in mental health: Illness to wellness. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 42 (5), 411-420.

Mace, R. A., Grunberg, V. A., & Vranceanu, A. M. (2022). Redefining brain health: a call to embrace a biopsychosocial approach. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, 3 (2), 1-7. Web.

Wickham, S. R., Amarasekara, N. A., Bartonicek, A., & Conner, T. S. (2020). The big three health behaviors and mental health and well-being among young adults: A cross-sectional investigation of sleep, exercise, and diet. Frontiers in Psychology, 11 , 1-10.

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The Changing Human Experience in Health and Illness

Human experience is a complex and multifaceted concept that encompasses a wide range of emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes. One of the most significant aspects of human experience is how it is affected by health and illness. The health-illness continuum is a framework that can help us understand how human experience changes as we move from a state of optimal health to a state of illness and back again.

At one end of the health-illness continuum is optimal health. This is a state where individuals are physically, mentally, and socially well. They are able to engage in daily activities without any limitations, and they feel a sense of well-being. In this state, human experience is characterized by positive emotions such as joy, happiness, and contentment. Individuals are able to pursue their goals and aspirations, and they feel a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Overall, the human experience in a state of optimal health is one of fulfillment and satisfaction.

As we move along the continuum towards illness, the human experience changes significantly. The onset of illness can lead to physical, emotional, and social distress. Individuals may experience pain, discomfort, and limitations in their ability to perform daily activities. They may also feel anxious, depressed, and hopeless. The human experience in a state of illness is characterized by negative emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration. Individuals may feel a sense of loss and grief as they are no longer able to engage in activities they once enjoyed. Overall, the human experience in a state of illness is one of suffering and distress.

However, it is important to note that the human experience in a state of illness is not always negative. Individuals may experience positive emotions such as resilience, hope, and gratitude in the face of illness. They may also find meaning and purpose in their illness experience, which can lead to personal growth and development. The human experience in a state of illness can be complex and multifaceted, and it is important to recognize the diversity of experiences that individuals may have.

As individuals recover from illness, they move back towards a state of optimal health. The human experience in this state is characterized by a sense of relief, gratitude, and renewed energy. Individuals may feel a sense of accomplishment as they regain their ability to perform daily activities, and they may experience positive emotions such as joy and happiness. Overall, the human experience in a state of recovery is one of hope and renewal.

In conclusion, the human experience is greatly influenced by health and illness. The health-illness continuum provides a framework for understanding how human experience changes as we move from a state of optimal health to a state of illness and back again. The human experience in a state of optimal health is one of fulfillment and satisfaction, while the human experience in a state of illness is one of suffering and distress. However, it is important to recognize that the human experience in a state of illness is not always negative, and individuals may find meaning and purpose in their illness experience. As individuals recover from illness, the human experience is characterized by a sense of relief, gratitude, and renewed energy. Understanding the human experience across the health-illness continuum is important for healthcare professionals to provide holistic and patient-centered care.

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What is the Health-Illness Continuum?

The Health-Illness Continuum is a model that represents a spectrum of health and illness, ranging from optimal health to severe illness and death. It acknowledges that health and illness are not static states, but rather, they are constantly changing and influenced by various factors.

What is the significance of the Health-Illness Continuum?

The Health-Illness Continuum provides a framework for understanding the dynamic nature of health and illness. It helps healthcare professionals to assess patients’ current state of health and to identify interventions that can improve their health outcomes.

How does the Human Experience differ across the Health-Illness Continuum?

The Human Experience varies across the Health-Illness Continuum. At one end of the spectrum, individuals may experience optimal health, which is characterized by a sense of well-being, vitality, and high levels of functioning. At the other end of the spectrum, individuals may experience severe illness or death, which can be characterized by physical pain, emotional distress, and a loss of independence and dignity.

How can healthcare professionals support patients across the Health-Illness Continuum?

Healthcare professionals can support patients across the Health-Illness Continuum by providing appropriate care and support that meets their individual needs. This may involve collaborating with other healthcare providers, offering emotional support, managing symptoms, and helping patients to maintain their sense of dignity and autonomy.

How can patients and their families cope with the challenges of the Health-Illness Continuum?

Patients and their families can cope with the challenges of the Health-Illness Continuum by seeking support from healthcare professionals, family members, and community resources. They can also engage in self-care activities such as exercise, healthy eating, and stress reduction techniques. Additionally, they may find it helpful to engage in activities that promote a sense of purpose and meaning, such as volunteering or engaging in spiritual practices.

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Health-Illness Continuum

Health Sciences & Nursing

Introduction

Illness-Wellness continuum is an illustration which proposed that the well-being of an individual is composed of the mental consciousness, emotional health and the state of whether a person has an illness or not. This concept was proposed by Travis in the year 1972. The healthy condition of a person varies with times where one could be physically fine and in other instances suffer from certain conditions(Payton, 2017).Examination of the health-illness continuum and its relation to the human experience helps to recognize the importance of adaptation to maintain health and well-being.Currently, healthcare focuses more on disease and illness and less on well-being and health. Every individualhave their unique health definition based on how they feel, are there any symptoms of an illness, and can they function and carry out daily duties. A continuum care system helps in the tracking of a patient’s condition from time to time and can determine the intensity of care that they need to say healthy.

Health-illness continuum

A state of well-being or wellness is a dynamic goal and a growing process. Therefore, decision making is required daily in areas relating to health and encompasses the whole individual. High-level wellness is on the right end of the continuum while illness or premature death is to the left. The midline of the continuum is a neutral point with no discernible illness or wellness. The theory relates that individuals move back and forth on the continuum daily(Greenberg, 2015). Along the continuum, is the treatment paradigm to the left of the neutral point. This is where traditional healthcare falls, in treatment and intervention of illness and disease states. The move to the left an individual move on the continuum, the more healthcare takes over, and the patient is doing very little to get well. Traditional medicine can only return the person to the neutral point along the wellness continuum. Once the midline is reached, it is up to the individual to assume responsibility and take the active role in the attainment of the wellness’ higher level

Reflection on my overall state of health

In reflecting on illness and wellness regarding my health, I am fully aware, educated and continually growing in health and wellness regarding how to keep myself fit to avoid contracting different diseases and conditions. Factors that contribute to my wellness include a positive forward attitude, healthy eating habits based on the Mediterranean, low carbohydrate diet due to a family history of diabetes and heart disease, and some moderate exercise(Ogden, 2012). Options and resources available to assist with my journey of continued wellness come from within the person in me. The personal human experience involves resilience to move forward with a positive attitude. With a continued realization of the illness-wellness continuum, there are days that I can perform better, especially with physical exercise, but remember when I could not walk and the days were gloomy, the fight back to health and wellness will never have been in vain.

Options and resources available to help me moving toward wellness

There are seven dimensions involved in attaining a higher level of wellness. These can also be defined as the options and resources available to help in the journey towards health and wellness. The physical dimension includes avoiding abuses, maintain nutrition, and achieve fitness and the ability to carry out activities. Social dimensions involve how an individual interacts and if they can develop and maintain an intimate relationship while expressing emotions and the ability to manage stress involves the emotional aspect. Intellectual dimension, on the other hand, entails the skill to learn and information use. The spiritual dimension consists of a system or a force of belief that is present and serves to unite. Both external and internal factors affect health status, beliefs, and practices. Internal factors are biological, such as genetics, age, gender and development, psychological, such as self-concept and mind-body interactions, and cognitive, such as religious beliefs and lifestyle choices. External factors relate to social support, cultural beliefs, and family, standards of living and physical environment.

Conclusions

For the health-illness continuum to function well, nurses are typically taught to care for patients and not just treat the patients. A determinant of the human experience is feeling loved, safe and connected. As both healthcare providers and nurses talk about individualized care, are we mindful to include the patient’s experience or are we just including the patient in technical education and with a sense of authority. Establishment of a relationship with the patient is the essence of health promotion. Therefore, considering the dimensions of wellness, it is easy to envision the importance of the health-illness continuum to forming the relationship between the patient and the healthcare team.

Greenberg, J. S. (2015). Health and wellness: A conceptual differentiation. Journal of School Health , 55 (10), 403-406.

Payton, A. R. (2017). Mental health, mental illness, and psychological distress: the same continuum or distinct phenomena?. Journal of Health and Social Behavior , 50 (2), 213-227.

Ogden, J. (2012). Health Psychology: A Textbook: A textbook . McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

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The Importance of the Health-Illness Continuum

As healthcare continues to grow and evolve, stakeholders in healthcare have continued to advocate for holistic healthcare to provide better quality healthcare. Holistic healthcare is an approach that tackles healthcare provision in a multidirectional manner (Capponi, 2019). One of the ways to assist the healthcare industry in moving towards holistic care and overall improved care is the health-illness continuum. The concept, first presented by John W. Travis, represents a graphic presentation of an individual’s wellness and is very useful for nurses and other healthcare stakeholders in determining the state of health an individual is in (Capponi, 2019). The analysis of the examination of the health-illness continuum and its relation to health and human experience, how the understanding of the health-illness continuum enables me to promote value and dignity, a reflection on my overall state of health, and the resources available to me to assist me in attaining better wellness will be discussed in detail.

The Health-Illness Continuum and its Relation to Health and Human Experience

The health-illness continuum presents a unique way of determining health and wellness. For many, the state of being healthy is often defined as the absence of disease (Fex et al., 2011). I also held the same belief before learning about the health-illness continuum. However, the continuum presents a new perspective on health by introducing wellness. This new perspective is important when understanding health and human experience (Tomczyk et al., 2022).

One of the important aspects of this perspective as it relates to health and human experience is that wellness means much more than physical health (Capponi, 2019). For a person to be considered well, medical personnel must understand that the person needs to possess awareness, education, and growth. Healthcare professionals are mandated to provide care by attending to their awareness, education, and growth. This perspective means that nurses and other healthcare professionals have a bigger role in promoting healthcare. These stakeholders play a key role in promoting wellness by promoting the patients’ education, awareness, and general growth (Capponi, 2019).

Another perspective presented by the continuum in relation to patient care is the importance of proactive care in improving wellness. Many in the medical field often provide reactive care, where we treat the illness after it has emerged (Capponi, 2019). While this approach promotes healthcare and increases wellness, it does not help the person achieve peak wellness. At best, the person gets to +1 on the continuum, with the only awareness they have is that they have to take care of themselves better. The continuum teaches that it is important for the medical industry to pursue proactive care to promote awareness, education, and growth (Tomczyk et al., 2022). The healthcare industry can only achieve these tenets of the health-illness continuum if the healthcare sector is dedicated to providing proactive healthcare services, as these tenets are promoted well by proactive care.

How the Health-Illness Continuum Promotes Value and Dignity

The health-illness continuum has significantly impacted my approach to providing better healthcare. One of the areas that the continuum has impacted is the promotion of value and dignity (Fex et al., 2011). The continuum helped me to understand the value of education and awareness in promoting overall healthcare. As a healthcare provider, I have always believed in proactive care. However, I had limited my approach to the use of vaccination and promoting healthy behaviors. While my approach encompassed education and awareness, it failed to account for providing proper guidance on how to provide education and awareness to the population I serve appropriately. After learning about the continuum, I have constantly been researching ways to improve my approach to proactive care, particularly as it pertains to value and dignity (Fex et al., 2011). I have begun promoting value and dignity through using advocacy to promote proactive care. For example, I have become an advocate for non-intrusive procedures wherever possible. This helps to preserve the patient’s dignity while promoting the quality of healthcare that the organization gives to its clients.

Another way the health-illness continuum has assisted me is that it has given me a blueprint to follow that leads to human flourishing (Gazaway et al., 2019). The continuum has helped me establish a standard that determines what qualifies as human flourishing. Before I was aware of the standard, I had thought that human flourishing was the absence of illness. However, I have discovered that human flourishing is associated more with wellness than health (Gazaway et al., 2019). With this knowledge, I have sought to improve my approach to providing healthcare by promoting wellness.

Reflection on My Overall State of Health

I believe that my health is in a good state. My last check-up shows that I am a model of good health. I have no illnesses besides some back pain which is a product of my awkward sitting position. Other than that, I have great health. I also believe that I have attained wellness. As a result of my profession, I have access to a lot more information concerning than the average person. This means that I am educated and aware of how to improve my health, which places me closer to high-level wellness.

What prevents me from achieving peak wellness are my unhealthy habits. One of these habits is that my diet is terrible. I am a huge fan of fast food, and with the crazy life of a nurse, I doubt it will change over time (Alexander et al., 2021). This means I eat more calories than I should, which has heavily influenced my weight. Though I exercise from time to time, inconsistency has been my enemy, and I have failed to attain a healthy BMI. This is the only area in my life that I feel has hindered me from achieving wellness. I have begun working on improving my health by finding an exercise regimen that I can adhere to. I have also begun looking at healthy eating alternatives.

Resources Available to Help Improve my Wellness

One of the major resources that I have access to is my education. As a student, I have access to a lot of information which has helped me learn more about health and wellness. This has saved me time on research as I can easily identify the areas in my life that need improvement through introspection. Other resources that have helped me move towards wellness on the health-illness spectrum are my friends and family. I come from a family that is very close and very honest with one another. They are usually the first to identify when something is wrong with me, and I believe they will play a huge role in my pursuit of wellness on the continuum.

These two resources each play unique roles in my pursuit of wellness. My education gives me knowledge concerning health, which allows me to make decisions about my well-being. My friends and family provide a moral ground that helps me to make decisions that benefit me in the short and long term.

Alexander, E., Rutkow, L., Gudzune, K. A., Cohen, J. E., & McGinty, E. E. (2021). Trends in the healthiness of US fast food meals, 2008–2017. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition , 75 (5), 775-781.

Capponi, N. (2019). Meaning and Use of the Transitions Concept in Healthcare. i-Manager’s Journal on Nursing , 9 (4), 34.

Fex, A., Flensner, G., Ek, A. C., & Söderhamn, O. (2011). Health–illness transition among persons using advanced medical technology at home. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences , 25 (2), 253-261.

Gazaway, S., Stewart, M., & Schumacher, A. (2019). Integrating palliative care into the chronic illness continuum: a conceptual model for minority populations. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities , 6 (6), 1078-1086.

Tomczyk, S., Schlick, S., Gansler, T., McLaren, T., Muehlan, H., Peter, L. J., & Schmidt, S. (2022). Continuum beliefs of mental illness: a systematic review of measures. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , 1-16.

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Health-Illness Continuum Relevance on the Patient Care

Introduction.

The health-illness continuum is a graphic illustration of well-being, first proposed by John W. Travis and Regina S. Ryan (LeMone, 2017). It goes beyond the physical aspect of health and concentrates on well-being or wellness as more than just an absence of illness. This paper aims to discuss the relevance of the health-illness continuum to patient care and present a perspective on the author’s current state of health.

Health-Illness Continuum’s Importance to Patient Care

The Health-Illness continuum is an essential framework that benefits patients’ health and improves the human experience inpatient care. According to this approach, health and illness can be described using a continuum with high-level health and wellness at one end and high levels of sickness and poor health, including death, at the other end. Patients’ status is evaluated according to this scale, and a healthcare plan is decided upon this evaluation.

The introduction of the “wellness” component is of significant importance as the concept of health is not necessarily always a goal. As researchers put it, “The concept of health is subjective and reflects an individual’s perspective of quality of life” (LeMone, 2017, p.17). Thus, moving on a scale from being sick to not showing any symptoms is just an intermittent goal. What healthcare providers should be thriving for is the high-level wellness that involves a contented mental state and flourishing.

This perspective is especially critical in health care and nursing. It allows us to address many issues that are not directly connected to the treatment of illness itself. Moreover, it provides an opportunity for practical evaluation of patients with chronic diseases. This holistic approach admits and welcomes different goals of healthcare. It goes beyond treating symptoms and allows to concentrate on patients’ mental and emotional state, providing support and means of leading a better life.

Relation of the Continuum to Value, Dignity, and Promotion of Human Flourishing

Value, dignity, and – in general – human flourishing have been deemed by the researchers as factors that contribute to the state of prosperity in individuals and society thriving in general. Human flourishing consists of many elements, “certainly including mental and physical health, but also encompassing happiness and life satisfaction, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships” (VanderWeele, 2017, p. 8148). Dignity is described as a quality “closely connected to esteem and status such that patients can live in accordance with their standards and values” (Xiao, Chow, Liu, & Chan, 2019, p. 1791). Therefore, for healthcare to be able to contribute to these spheres, it should concentrate on treating patients and not illnesses.

Since the Health-Illness continuum approach is concentrated on the mental and physical state of patients, it can be used as an effective way to promote the value, dignity, and flourishing of patients. The concept of wellness that lies in the basis of the health-illness continuum “considers all facets of an individual including physical, psychological, cultural, spiritual and intellectual” (LeMone, 2017, p. 17). Therefore, by accepting this method, healthcare providers make a significant contribution to the well-being of individuals and society.

Looking at a patient as a person with mental needs and respecting their values allows doctors not only to maintain or restore their health but also to respect their dignity and prioritize their flourishing. It is especially significant in treating people with chronic diseases or in need of palliative care. For other patients, this approach shown by doctors and nurses might bring change to their everyday lives and teach valuable lessons on how to improve their well-being beyond healthcare situations.

Reflection on Personal State of Health and the Health-Illness Continuum

My health state – if evaluated from the traditional point of view – is relatively satisfactory in general. I am young, moderately in shape, and do not suffer from having any chronic or acute diseases. I get seasonal colds twice a year and come from a family without cardiovascular or cancer history. However, over the last few years, I have been experiencing fatigue, tiredness, bad mood, and low energy. Quite often, I find myself in states of anxiety and boredom that prevent me from being productive. Therefore, I would put myself in a state of false wellness that manifests itself in the absence of illness symptoms.

The reasons for the sensations that I am experiencing might originate in my lifestyle choices and habits. I often skip breakfast, indulge on fast food or cafeteria sandwiches, drink more than 3 cups of coffee a day, and at least five energy drinks a week to stay awake during classes. After coming home, I take long naps, which results in my inability to go to bed at a reasonable time as otherwise, I do not have time to do my homework and socialize. Since most of the time I feel tired and sleepy, I find it difficult to concentrate on things I am doing. Moreover, I find it hard to find time for regular workouts.

The realization that my lifestyle is not as productive as I would want makes me stressed and anxious. It feels that I miss out on many opportunities and could have done better if I were more disciplined and responsible. However, learning about the health-illness continuum made me think of measures that could be implemented to improve my well-being. Therefore, I came up with several solutions that would potentially help me.

Resources Supporting Wellness

To improve my state of health and get to the stage of excellent or optimal health, I need to concentrate on exercising regularly, eating healthier, and changing some of my other behaviors. Among them are irregular sleep cycles, lack of time management, and creating stressful situations for myself. Dealing with these issues would allow me to progress on the scale of wellness and develop conditions for illness prevention.

Starting from a neutral point of the health-illness continuum, I am determined to become more aware of my state, educate, and grow. Being already aware of the necessity to advance on the scale, I would want to learn more about healthy nutrition and find a better routine. Moreover, to normalize my sleep, I need to reconsider my other habits, such as procrastination.

Thus, my plan should involve several steps:

Sleep at least 8 hours per night;
Limit the caffeine intake;
Plan my days focusing on allocating time to studies, workouts, and rest.

However, this list is not complete, and I consider some other methods that would be potentially helpful. In addition to the measures mentioned above, I am planning on getting professional and peer support. I have already booked a consultation with a study counselor who will hopefully give me some useful tips on self-actualization. My determination is to reach the state of optimal well-being and live my life fully.

The health-illness continuum that focuses on the concept of well-being rather than treating symptoms opens opportunities for more effective healthcare. Going beyond addressing particular health issues and symptoms, allows healthcare practitioners to evaluate the state of their patients despite their illness status. Moreover, it provides useful insights for everyone interested in improving their life and concentrating on being not only disease-free but also a flourishing individual.

LeMone, P. (2017). Medical-surgical nursing. Volumes 1-3: Critical thinking for person-centered care. Melbourne: Pearson Australia.

VanderWeele, T. J. (2017). On the promotion of human flourishing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114 (31), 8148-8156. Web.

Xiao, J., Chow, K.M., Liu, Y., & Chan, C.W.H. (2019). Effects of dignity therapy on dignity, psychological well-being and quality of life among palliative care cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psycho-Oncology, 28, 1791-1802. Web.

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Healthcare and Nursing

Health Illness Continuum

24 Aug 2022

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Empirical studies have unravelled that there is more to humanity than the physical muscles and bone. Man is made up of a mind and an inner being. Thus the wellness of human beings is not merely the absence of illness, but also one's emotional and mental state (Svalastog, 2017). The health-illness continuum is a construct of John Travis. It is a graphic representation of one’s wellbeing. It surfaced from what Travis concludes. Travis affirms that it is a wrong assumption to believe that just because the medicines eliminated the symptomatology of a disease, then the person is wholesomely cured.

The continuum is made of two arrows pointing in two different directions and joined together at a neutral point. From one end is premature death, disability, symptoms, signs and finally the neutral junction. The neutral junction encompasses awareness, education, growth, and high-level wellness. The treatment paradigm is an arrow from premature death to the neutral junction whereas the wellness paradigm begins from premature death to high-level wellness. The movement to the right from the left edge of the continuum, which is premature death headed to the other end of high-level wellness indicates improvements in health. A movement to the left indicates a decrease in health, which is stepwise from signs to symptoms, and finally disabilities that end up in premature death. The movement to wellbeing is characterized by awareness, education, and growth that culminate in high-level wellness.

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From the continuum, the direction of progression is more important than the actual state as it is able to indicate where one is headed health-wise. For a practitioner or care provider, an understanding of this continuum is critical. A patient’s expectations, as well as experiences through the entire continuum, are highly dependent on the location. A patient under the symptoms of pain cares less about their workplace, and the primary focus of the caregiver should be to eliminate the pain (Dulaney, 2017). The position of the patient on the continuum also helps in determining the urgency to be applied in handling a particular matter. This helps prioritization by the caregiver, especially when handling multiple patients. Follow up ought not to stop at the absence of disease, but a caregiver should insist on seeing the full wellbeing attained by the patient.

Personal Reflection

As a person, I consider myself to be at the neutral point. Whereas biologically I have no signs or symptoms I cannot declare to be wholesomely in perfect health. The multiple assignments and responsibilities are consistently weighing me down. Severally, I have felt overwhelmed by the numerous duties I am expected to deliver on. I seem not to have any energy left to undertake other aspects that would grant me a higher degree of wellness. Nonetheless, a proper investment on methods of stress management and planning will probably yield fruit in tilting my position on the continuum to the right.

Options and Resources

In a bid to get to a place of wellness, key resources available; reading materials, counseling sessions, and mental exercises that relieve the stress should be used. Texts and sessions on emotional intelligence that train on handling stress and planning are critical in ensuring I am positioned to manage stress (Manwell, 2015). The services of a counselor would be instrumental in allowing one to paint an accurate picture of oneself, thinking through the various tasks and prioritizing them appropriately to avoid the immense stress and rush that is usually associated with the mannerisms that I handle my assignments. The human company, a situation where one spends considerable time with like-minded people, is also helpful. Positive sharing of ideas and reflections and challenging each other to do better is cardinal in making one better. In certain situations, medicines and pills that enhance cognitive functions have been deemed to be helpful in the attainment of total well-being, since they enhance wellness.

Dulaney, C. (2017). Defining health Across the Cancer Continuum. Cureus; Publishing Beyond Open Access .

Manwell, L. A. (2015). What Is Mental Health? Evidence towards a new definition from a mixed methods multidisciplinary international Survey. BMJ Open .

Svalastog, A. L. (2017). Concepts and Definitions of health-related values in Knowledge landsape of the Digital Society. Croatian Medical Journal , 431-435.

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J Patient Exp
v.7(6); 2020 Dec

Understanding the Patient Experience: A Conceptual Framework

Patrick oben.

1 MercyOne Des Moines, Des Moines, IA, USA

The patient experience is now globally recognized as an independent dimension of health-care quality. However, although patients, providers, health-care managers, and policy-makers agree on its importance, there is no standardized definition of the patient experience. A clear understanding of the basic concepts that make up the foundation of the patient experience is more important than a statement defining the patient experience. The fundamental nature of health care involves people taking care of other people in unique times of distress. Thus, the human experience is at the very core of understanding what the patient experience is. This article reviews a framework of the basic human experience of patients as they progress from being unique, healthy individuals to a state of experiencing both disease and health-care services. This novel framework naturally leads to a basic understanding of the patient experience as a human experience of health-care services.

Introduction

Throughout the world, the patient experience is recognized as an independent dimension of health-care quality, along with clinical effectiveness and patient safety ( 1 , 2 ). Health-care organizations across the United States are focusing on how to “deliver a superior patient experience” ( 3 ). Quality is a key driver of these industry-wide changes, as are the shifts in health-care policy that have tied hospital and physician compensation to patient experience measures, the focus on patient engagement, and the emergence of the consumer mindset ( 2 , 4 ).

Despite the increasingly important role that the patient experience occupies in health-care clinical practice, research, quality improvement efforts, and policies, there is no universal understanding of what the “patient experience” is, as evidenced by the lack of a standardized definition ( 4 ). Therefore, patients, clinicians, policy makers, managers, and researchers have different interprets of the concept ( 5 ). Although this has been called the “era of the patient” ( 6 ), experts have said, “it’s no wonder that hospitals are struggling with the best way to provide it.” After all, if you can’t define what it is, you can’t provide it—and you certainly can’t measure it” ( 5 ). Thus, a clearer understanding of the patient experience will assist clinicians in improving that experience at the point of care, guide further research into the topic, and provide clear directions for quality improvement efforts and health-care policies.

There are several reasons for the lack of a formal definition or clear understanding of the patient experience. The patient experience is a multidimensional, multifaceted, and intimately connected concept with several subsections. Furthermore, framing definitions, even when concepts are well understood, is not a simple task. The Beryl Institute made a significant stride forward by providing a definition that highlights the integrated and multidimensional nature of the patient experience and the complexity of the framing task ( 4 , 7 ). They defined the patient experience as “the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization’s culture, that influence patient perceptions, across the continuum of care” ( 7 ). This definition identifies 4 critical themes for understanding the patient experience: personal interactions, organization’s culture, patient and family perceptions, and continuum of care.

By itself, a definition is a statement that seeks to convey the understanding of a concept. The greater our understanding of the patient experience, the easier it is to frame a definition. As we continue to create a standardized definition, it is important to step back from its multidimensional nature and review its most basic concepts. One fundamental source for this concept comes from an article in the 2001 Institute of Medicine, which states, “health care is not just another service industry. Its fundamental nature is characterized by people taking care of other people in times of need and stress” ( 8 ). A central role in health care is, therefore, the humanity of both the patient and care provider throughout the process of providing health care. Both the physician and patient are people ( 9 ).

This article seeks to provide a general overview of the patient experience from the platform of who we are as human beings, whether we are patients or providers. It provides a conceptual framework that traces the patient’s virtual journey from health, to the onset of disease, and through multiple encounters with health-care services. To fully appreciate the value of this conceptual framework, awareness of 2 important elements is required. First, although the patient experience concept is multidimensional and multifaceted, the health-care experience for the individual patient is unified; it is informed by a complex combination of the patient’s personal life, as well as their own and their family’s experiences within the health-care system at all levels of care.

Second, the word “patient” is used in this article with a specific meaning. There is intense debate about replacing the word patient with consumer, users, or clients; the argument for the change is that the word “patient” conveys the idea of passivity and does not correctly describe all patient populations, especially the “well patient” seeking preventive services ( 10 , 11 ).

In this article, we use the dictionary definition of patient: “a person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment” ( 12 ). However, the additional element of “suffering,” which captures a critical element of the human experience of disease, is also incorporated. Thus, patient refers to a person suffering from a disease before and after they begin receiving or are registered to receive medical treatment.

The Experience Journey of the Patient

A recurrent and prominent theme in discussions of the patient experience is centering the patient’s perception or perspective on the health care they receive ( 7 , 13 ). Health-care providers who seek to understand the patient’s perspective of their experience will obtain a greater understanding of the patient experience. Furthermore, it is important to note that the patient’s overall health and disease experience begins before they enter the health-care system. This holistic experience from the patient’s perspective is critical for a complete understanding of their experience within the health-care organization.

Phases and landmarks of the patient experience

When a patient contacts a health-care organization, assuming they are in a basic state of health, they begin a journey that consists of 3 phases or spheres of experiences with 2 critical landmarks. These phases and landmarks of the patient experience are illustrated in Figure 1 .

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is 10.1177_2374373520951672-fig1.jpg

A conceptual framework for understanding the patient experience. The arrows indicate the direction patients take in their journey through health-care encounters, which is hypothetically to the right of the diagram. The person moves across the continuum, indicating that the patient or user of health-care services is the same unique human being they have always been. The arrow labeled “Patient” begins in the middle, indicating the person is not always a patient and becomes one with the onset of disease. The “User” arrow indicates that the person who has a disease only becomes a user of health-care services with their first interaction with the health-care system.

The patient, just as the provider, is a unique individual. A baseline state of health is used for the purpose of simplicity, as illustrated in the right column in Figure 1 .
The first landmark for the individual is the beginning of a process that moves them from the first column, person, to the middle column, patient. A patient, as we have stated, is a person who is suffering from a disease, but they are still the same unique person they have been.
The second landmark occurs when this person suffering from a disease makes their first contact with medical care services regarding this disease. They become users or consumers of these services. While they interact with health-care organizations, they continue to be the same person they were before disease onset.

Importantly, the state of disease or the role of a person as a user of health-care services is dynamic. If the disease is cured, the individual who was a patient before is restored to the experience of health and is no longer a patient.

A Continuum and Unity

As Figure 1 demonstrates, the patient remains the same person they were before the disease onset, even after they contract a disease or begin utilizing medical services. The person’s interactions with health-care providers—and not their disease or their role as consumers—are the key to understanding the fundamental nature of the patient experience.

The patient experience does not rely solely on the events that occur between themselves and health-care providers; their complex human experiences also influence their perception of the situation. For instance, while the patient seeks to understand the plan of care as the provider explains it (experience with medical services), they might also experience discomfort from their symptoms (experiences of the disease) and anxiety over making sure their kids are picked up from daycare (experiences in general life).

A journey through this continuum leads to a solid understanding of what health care currently refers to as the patient experience. As shown in Figure 1 , this experience is also a human experience of a distinct occurrence or series of events called health-care service.

The Person: The Human Experience

The first column in Figure 1 lays the foundation for understanding the person who seeks medical care from health-care providers. Understanding the humanity of patients is the critical foundation upon which any successful patient-centered experience efforts should be built. The prominent role of our humanity distinguishes health care from other service industries ( 8 ). In “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine,” Jameson et al stated, “Tact, sympathy, and understanding are expected of the physician, for the patient is no mere collection of symptoms, signs disordered functions, damaged organs, and disturbed emotions. [The patient] is human, fearful and hopeful, seeking relief, help and reassurance” ( 14 ).

The patient is a human, and humanity harbors the secret to the elements of care that creates a superior patient experience. In a speech to Harvard Medical Students in 1926, Francis Peabody stated, “one of the essential qualities of the clinician is interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient” ( 9 , 15 ). This statement is as valid today as it was when it was first spoken. Our interest in the humanity of our patients naturally leads us to care for the person who is suffering from an illness and seeking help from the health-care system, rather than merely managing a case or disease. The human experience is, therefore, central to the overall conceptual understanding of the patient experience.

The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” ( 16 ). This definition indicates that the human experience in health and disease is multidimensional and includes physical, mental, and social dimensions. Puchalski identified a fourth, spiritual dimension; she calls compassionate care “serving the whole person—the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual” ( 17 ); research has shown this to be important to many patients ( 18 ). The social dimension emphasizes the importance of engaging not only the patient but also their families and communities ( 19 - 21 ). Needham recognizes the multinational nature of the patient experience in stating that both emotional and physical experiences must be managed, highlighting 2 out of the 4 dimensions noted above ( 22 ).

The Patient: The Experience of Illness

As noted above, this article uses the word patient to refer to a person suffering from a disease before and after they begin receiving or are registered to receive medical treatment. It has a central role in the conceptual framework of Figure 1 , as it preserves what is “distinctive about medical practice” ( 10 ) and what separates health care from many other service industries: a human being suffering from a disease seeks care from another human being who not only provides a service but also is moved with compassion and empathy for the one seeking help ( 8 ). Despite its limitations within the evolving landscape of health care, Dr. Raymond Tallis’ comment regarding replacing the word patient, to “leave it well alone” ( 10 ), seems to be echoed by most patients and providers ( 23 ).

The onset of a disease marks the critical landmark of the transition from a person who is healthy to a person suffering from a disease before or after they are registered or begin receiving medical treatment. The individual, who we assume was previously healthy, begins to experience a disease in the psychological, physical, social, and spiritual dimensions. For example, a patient with a broken bone may experience not only physical pain and sight of a possible deformity but also the fear and anxiety of lifelong loss of movement or being admitted to a hospital for the first time.

Shale describes 3 aspects of the patient experience, including physiologic experiences of illness, customer service, and lived experiences of the illness ( 24 ). The patient’s experience of an illness is a distinct aspect of their overall experience. The ultimate hope of medical care is to eliminate, reduce the impact of, or manage the varied psychological, physical, social, and spiritual experiences of illness, for both the patient and their families and communities. These distinct spheres of experiences, which simultaneously occur during every interaction between the health-care organization and the person, form the continuum of the patient’s holistic experience of care.

The Experience of Health-Care Services

Health care is, “after all, a service” ( 2 ). Patients become users or consumers of health-care services when they begin using those services, starting with their first interaction across the continuum of care. Health-care service, as a continuum of all interactions with the patient, is experienced in the same 4-dimensional sphere of human experience, that is, physically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. The patient experience, in essence, is the human experience of health-care services. The central reason for the existence of the health-care industry is to care for the patient: to manage their physical, psychological (emotional/mental), social, and spiritual health needs as presented.

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a standardized, well-established, and extensively-validated instrument that measures the degree to which health-care services have managed to meet the aforementioned complex needs ( 13 ). The HCAHPS addresses specific aspects of interactions between the patient and the health-care organization, such as communication with doctors and nurses. The patient’s experience begins with the onset of disease, which, however, the HCAHPS cannot capture. This is because the health-care system is not responsible for the prior, varied experiences that individual patients may have experienced in their illness before seeking care for this disease state. However, when these patients are under the care of a health-care organization, the degree to which the care services meet their needs, in the context of the family and community, is the health-care service provider’s direct responsibility. The HCAHPS scores give health-care service providers a quantitative measure to assess how well they are meeting the needs of their patients, families, and communities. They can then determine areas of strengths and weaknesses and clearly plan quality improvement changes across the continuum of care so that “patients would experience care” that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and more equitable” ( 8 ).

A proper, clear, and precise understanding of the patient experience will benefit the health-care industry and society in multiple aspects, including but not limited to establishing a tailored and personalized clinical bedside care, providing clear guidance for further research, stimulating consistent and sustainable improvements in medical care quality, and guiding health-care policy. The conceptual framework presented in this article, which seeks to clarify the centrality of the patient’s human experience across the continuum of care, is only the beginning point for a better overall understanding of this multidimensional, multifaceted concept. The health-care industry has not received the full benefit of the data provided by patient experience measurement tools. Given the potential impact on quality, safety, and cost of health care in general, research efforts should be made to not only create a standardized definition of the patient experience but also clarify its various components. The current methods of measurement and reporting should be improved in order to establish the best ways to incorporate the patient experience data into general health-care improvement efforts.

Author Biography

Patrick Oben is a hospitalist at MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center. He serves as the Physician Lead of the MercyOne Patient Experience unit.

Authors’ Note: No research was performed on human or animal subjects and as such approval by an Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board was not required. Similarly, no informed patient consents were obtained as these were not required.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Latitude varies from −90° to 90°. The latitude of the Equator is 0°; the latitude of the South Pole is −90°; the latitude of the North Pole is 90°. Positive latitude values correspond to the geographic locations north of the Equator (abbrev. N). Negative latitude values correspond to the geographic locations south of the Equator (abbrev. S).

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Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia

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Kontinental Hockey League

Gagarin Cup Preview: Atlant vs. Salavat Yulaev

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Gagarin cup (khl) finals: atlant moscow oblast vs. salavat yulaev ufa.

Much like the Elitserien Finals, we have a bit of an offense vs. defense match-up in this league Final. While Ufa let their star top line of Alexander Radulov, Patrick Thoresen and Igor Grigorenko loose on the KHL's Western Conference, Mytischi played a more conservative style, relying on veterans such as former NHLers Jan Bulis, Oleg Petrov, and Jaroslav Obsut. Just reaching the Finals is a testament to Atlant's disciplined style of play, as they had to knock off much more high profile teams from Yaroslavl and St. Petersburg to do so. But while they did finish 8th in the league in points, they haven't seen the likes of Ufa, who finished 2nd.

This series will be a challenge for the underdog, because unlike some of the other KHL teams, Ufa's top players are generally younger and in their prime. Only Proshkin amongst regular blueliners is over 30, with the work being shared by Kirill Koltsov (28), Andrei Kuteikin (26), Miroslav Blatak (28), Maxim Kondratiev (28) and Dmitri Kalinin (30). Oleg Tverdovsky hasn't played a lot in the playoffs to date. Up front, while led by a fairly young top line (24-27), Ufa does have a lot of veterans in support roles: Vyacheslav Kozlov , Viktor Kozlov , Vladimir Antipov, Sergei Zinovyev and Petr Schastlivy are all over 30. In fact, the names of all their forwards are familiar to international and NHL fans: Robert Nilsson , Alexander Svitov, Oleg Saprykin and Jakub Klepis round out the group, all former NHL players.

For Atlant, their veteran roster, with only one of their top six D under the age of 30 (and no top forwards under 30, either), this might be their one shot at a championship. The team has never won either a Russian Superleague title or the Gagarin Cup, and for players like former NHLer Oleg Petrov, this is probably the last shot at the KHL's top prize. The team got three extra days rest by winning their Conference Final in six games, and they probably needed to use it. Atlant does have younger regulars on their roster, but they generally only play a few shifts per game, if that.

The low event style of game for Atlant probably suits them well, but I don't know how they can manage to keep up against Ufa's speed, skill, and depth. There is no advantage to be seen in goal, with Erik Ersberg and Konstantin Barulin posting almost identical numbers, and even in terms of recent playoff experience Ufa has them beat. Luckily for Atlant, Ufa isn't that far away from the Moscow region, so travel shouldn't play a major role.

I'm predicting that Ufa, winners of the last Superleague title back in 2008, will become the second team to win the Gagarin Cup, and will prevail in five games. They have a seriously well built team that would honestly compete in the NHL. They represent the potential of the league, while Atlant represents closer to the reality, as a team full of players who played themselves out of the NHL.

Atlant @ Ufa, Friday Apr 8 (3:00 PM CET/10:00 PM EST)
Atlant @ Ufa, Sunday Apr 10 (1:00 PM CET/8:00 AM EST)
Ufa @ Atlant, Tuesday Apr 12 (5:30 PM CET/12:30 PM EST)
Ufa @ Atlant, Thursday Apr 14 (5:30 PM CET/12:30 PM EST)

Games 5-7 are as yet unscheduled, but every second day is the KHL standard, so expect Game 5 to be on Saturday, like an early start.

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635th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment

635-й зенитно-ракетный полк

Military Unit: 86646

Activated 1953 in Stepanshchino, Moscow Oblast - initially as the 1945th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment for Special Use and from 1955 as the 635th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment for Special Use.

1953 to 1984 equipped with 60 S-25 (SA-1) launchers:

Launch area: 55 15 43N, 38 32 13E (US designation: Moscow SAM site E14-1)
Support area: 55 16 50N, 38 32 28E
Guidance area: 55 16 31N, 38 30 38E

1984 converted to the S-300PT (SA-10) with three independent battalions:

1st independent Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion (Bessonovo, Moscow Oblast) - 55 09 34N, 38 22 26E
2nd independent Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion and HQ (Stepanshchino, Moscow Oblast) - 55 15 31N, 38 32 23E
3rd independent Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion (Shcherbovo, Moscow Oblast) - 55 22 32N, 38 43 33E

Disbanded 1.5.98.

Subordination:

1st Special Air Defence Corps , 1953 - 1.6.88
86th Air Defence Division , 1.6.88 - 1.10.94
86th Air Defence Brigade , 1.10.94 - 1.10.95
86th Air Defence Division , 1.10.95 - 1.5.98

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When Prison and Mental Illness Amount to a Death Sentence

The downward spiral of one inmate, Markus Johnson, shows the larger failures of the nation’s prisons to care for the mentally ill.

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By Glenn Thrush

Photographs by Carlos Javier Ortiz

Glenn Thrush spent more than a year reporting this article, interviewing close to 50 people and reviewing court-obtained body-camera footage and more than 1,500 pages of documents.

Published May 5, 2024 Updated May 7, 2024

Markus Johnson slumped naked against the wall of his cell, skin flecked with pepper spray, his face a mask of puzzlement, exhaustion and resignation. Four men in black tactical gear pinned him, his face to the concrete, to cuff his hands behind his back.

He did not resist. He couldn’t. He was so gravely dehydrated he would be dead by their next shift change.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

“I didn’t do anything,” Mr. Johnson moaned as they pressed a shield between his shoulders.

It was 1:19 p.m. on Sept. 6, 2019, in the Danville Correctional Center, a medium-security prison a few hours south of Chicago. Mr. Johnson, 21 and serving a short sentence for gun possession, was in the throes of a mental collapse that had gone largely untreated, but hardly unwatched.

He had entered in good health, with hopes of using the time to gain work skills. But for the previous three weeks, Mr. Johnson, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, had refused to eat or take his medication. Most dangerous of all, he had stealthily stopped drinking water, hastening the physical collapse that often accompanies full-scale mental crises.

Mr. Johnson’s horrific downward spiral, which has not been previously reported, represents the larger failures of the nation’s prisons to care for the mentally ill. Many seriously ill people receive no treatment . For those who do, the outcome is often determined by the vigilance and commitment of individual supervisors and frontline staff, which vary greatly from system to system, prison to prison, and even shift to shift.

The country’s jails and prisons have become its largest provider of inpatient mental health treatment, with 10 times as many seriously mentally ill people now held behind bars as in hospitals. Estimating the population of incarcerated people with major psychological problems is difficult, but the number is likely 200,000 to 300,000, experts say.

Many of these institutions remain ill-equipped to handle such a task, and the burden often falls on prison staff and health care personnel who struggle with the dual roles of jailer and caregiver in a high-stress, dangerous, often dehumanizing environment.

In 2021, Joshua McLemore , a 29-year-old with schizophrenia held for weeks in an isolation cell in Jackson County, Ind., died of organ failure resulting from a “refusal to eat or drink,” according to an autopsy. In April, New York City agreed to pay $28 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Nicholas Feliciano, a young man with a history of mental illness who suffered severe brain damage after attempting to hang himself on Rikers Island — as correctional officers stood by.

Mr. Johnson’s mother has filed a wrongful-death suit against the state and Wexford Health Sources, a for-profit health care contractor in Illinois prisons. The New York Times reviewed more than 1,500 pages of reports, along with depositions taken from those involved. Together, they reveal a cascade of missteps, missed opportunities, potential breaches of protocol and, at times, lapses in common sense.

A woman wearing a jeans jacket sitting at a table showing photos of a young boy on her cellphone.

Prison officials and Wexford staff took few steps to intervene even after it became clear that Mr. Johnson, who had been hospitalized repeatedly for similar episodes and recovered, had refused to take medication. Most notably, they did not transfer him to a state prison facility that provides more intensive mental health treatment than is available at regular prisons, records show.

The quality of medical care was also questionable, said Mr. Johnson’s lawyers, Sarah Grady and Howard Kaplan, a married legal team in Chicago. Mr. Johnson lost 50 to 60 pounds during three weeks in solitary confinement, but officials did not initiate interventions like intravenous feedings or transfer him to a non-prison hospital.

And they did not take the most basic step — dialing 911 — until it was too late.

There have been many attempts to improve the quality of mental health treatment in jails and prisons by putting care on par with punishment — including a major effort in Chicago . But improvements have proved difficult to enact and harder to sustain, hampered by funding and staffing shortages.

Lawyers representing the state corrections department, Wexford and staff members who worked at Danville declined to comment on Mr. Johnson’s death, citing the unresolved litigation. In their interviews with state police investigators, and in depositions, employees defended their professionalism and adherence to procedure, while citing problems with high staff turnover, difficult work conditions, limited resources and shortcomings of co-workers.

But some expressed a sense of resignation about the fate of Mr. Johnson and others like him.

Prisoners have “much better chances in a hospital, but that’s not their situation,” said a senior member of Wexford’s health care team in a deposition.

“I didn’t put them in prison,” he added. “They are in there for a reason.”

Markus Mison Johnson was born on March 1, 1998, to a mother who believed she was not capable of caring for him.

Days after his birth, he was taken in by Lisa Barker Johnson, a foster mother in her 30s who lived in Zion, Ill., a working-class city halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Markus eventually became one of four children she adopted from different families.

The Johnson house is a lively split level, with nieces, nephews, grandchildren and neighbors’ children, family keepsakes, video screens and juice boxes. Ms. Johnson sits at its center on a kitchen chair, chin resting on her hand as children wander over to share their thoughts, or to tug on her T-shirt to ask her to be their bathroom buddy.

From the start, her bond with Markus was particularly powerful, in part because the two looked so much alike, with distinctive dimpled smiles. Many neighbors assumed he was her biological son. The middle name she chose for him was intended to convey that message.

“Mison is short for ‘my son,’” she said standing over his modest footstone grave last summer.

He was happy at home. School was different. His grades were good, but he was intensely shy and was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in elementary school.

That was around the time the bullying began. His sisters were fierce defenders, but they could only do so much. He did the best he could, developing a quick, taunting tongue.

These experiences filled him with a powerful yearning to fit in.

It was not to be.

When he was around 15, he called 911 in a panic, telling the dispatcher he saw two men standing near the small park next to his house threatening to abduct children playing there. The officers who responded found nothing out of the ordinary, and rang the Johnsons’ doorbell.

He later told his mother he had heard a voice telling him to “protect the kids.”

He was hospitalized for the first time at 16, and given medications that stabilized him for stretches of time. But the crises would strike every six months or so, often triggered by his decision to stop taking his medication.

His family became adept at reading signs he was “getting sick.” He would put on his tan Timberlands and a heavy winter coat, no matter the season, and perch on the edge of his bed as if bracing for battle. Sometimes, he would cook his own food, paranoid that someone might poison him.

He graduated six months early, on the dean’s list, but was rudderless, and hanging out with younger boys, often paying their way.

His mother pointed out the perils of buying friendship.

“I don’t care,” he said. “At least I’ll be popular for a minute.”

Zion’s inviting green grid of Bible-named streets belies the reality that it is a rough, unforgiving place to grow up. Family members say Markus wanted desperately to prove he was tough, and emulated his younger, reckless group of friends.

Like many of them, he obtained a pistol. He used it to hold up a convenience store clerk for $425 in January 2017, according to police records. He cut a plea deal for two years of probation, and never explained to his family what had made him do it.

But he kept getting into violent confrontations. In late July 2018, he was arrested in a neighbor’s garage with a handgun he later admitted was his. He was still on probation for the robbery, and his public defender negotiated a plea deal that would send him to state prison until January 2020.

An inpatient mental health system

Around 40 percent of the about 1.8 million people in local, state and federal jails and prison suffer from at least one mental illness, and many of these people have concurrent issues with substance abuse, according to recent Justice Department estimates.

Psychological problems, often exacerbated by drug use, often lead to significant medical problems resulting from a lack of hygiene or access to good health care.

“When you suffer depression in the outside world, it’s hard to concentrate, you have reduced energy, your sleep is disrupted, you have a very gloomy outlook, so you stop taking care of yourself,” said Robert L. Trestman , a Virginia Tech medical school professor who has worked on state prison mental health reforms.

The paradox is that prison is often the only place where sick people have access to even minimal care.

But the harsh work environment, remote location of many prisons, and low pay have led to severe shortages of corrections staff and the unwillingness of doctors, nurses and counselors to work with the incarcerated mentally ill.

In the early 2000s, prisoners’ rights lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit against Illinois claiming “deliberate indifference” to the plight of about 5,000 mentally ill prisoners locked in segregated units and denied treatment and medication.

In 2014, the parties reached a settlement that included minimum staffing mandates, revamped screening protocols, restrictions on the use of solitary confinement and the allocation of about $100 million to double capacity in the system’s specialized mental health units.

Yet within six months of the deal, Pablo Stewart, an independent monitor chosen to oversee its enforcement, declared the system to be in a state of emergency.

Over the years, some significant improvements have been made. But Dr. Stewart’s final report , drafted in 2022, gave the system failing marks for its medication and staffing policies and reliance on solitary confinement “crisis watch” cells.

Ms. Grady, one of Mr. Johnson’s lawyers, cited an additional problem: a lack of coordination between corrections staff and Wexford’s professionals, beyond dutifully filling out dozens of mandated status reports.

“Markus Johnson was basically documented to death,” she said.

‘I’m just trying to keep my head up’

Mr. Johnson was not exactly looking forward to prison. But he saw it as an opportunity to learn a trade so he could start a family when he got out.

On Dec. 18, 2018, he arrived at a processing center in Joliet, where he sat for an intake interview. He was coherent and cooperative, well-groomed and maintained eye contact. He was taking his medication, not suicidal and had a hearty appetite. He was listed as 5 feet 6 inches tall and 256 pounds.

Mr. Johnson described his mood as “go with the flow.”

A few days later, after arriving in Danville, he offered a less settled assessment during a telehealth visit with a Wexford psychiatrist, Dr. Nitin Thapar. Mr. Johnson admitted to being plagued by feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness and “constant uncontrollable worrying” that affected his sleep.

He told Dr. Thapar he had heard voices in the past — but not now — telling him he was a failure, and warning that people were out to get him.

At the time he was incarcerated, the basic options for mentally ill people in Illinois prisons included placement in the general population or transfer to a special residential treatment program at the Dixon Correctional Center, west of Chicago. Mr. Johnson seemed out of immediate danger, so he was assigned to a standard two-man cell in the prison’s general population, with regular mental health counseling and medication.

Things started off well enough. “I’m just trying to keep my head up,” he wrote to his mother. “Every day I learn to be stronger & stronger.”

But his daily phone calls back home hinted at friction with other inmates. And there was not much for him to do after being turned down for a janitorial training program.

Then, in the spring of 2019, his grandmother died, sending him into a deep hole.

Dr. Thapar prescribed a new drug used to treat major depressive disorders. Its most common side effect is weight gain. Mr. Johnson stopped taking it.

On July 4, he told Dr. Thapar matter-of-factly during a telehealth check-in that he was no longer taking any of his medications. “I’ve been feeling normal, I guess,” he said. “I feel like I don’t need the medication anymore.”

Dr. Thapar said he thought that was a mistake, but accepted the decision and removed Mr. Johnson from his regular mental health caseload — instructing him to “reach out” if he needed help, records show.

The pace of calls back home slackened. Mr. Johnson spent more time in bed, and became more surly. At a group-therapy session, he sat stone silent, after showing up late.

By early August, he was telling guards he had stopped eating.

At some point, no one knows when, he had intermittently stopped drinking fluids.

‘I’m having a breakdown’

Then came the crash.

On Aug. 12, Mr. Johnson got into a fight with his older cellmate.

He was taken to a one-man disciplinary cell. A few hours later, Wexford’s on-site mental health counselor, Melanie Easton, was shocked by his disoriented condition. Mr. Johnson stared blankly, then burst into tears when asked if he had “suffered a loss in the previous six months.”

He was so unresponsive to her questions she could not finish the evaluation.

Ms. Easton ordered that he be moved to a 9-foot by 8-foot crisis cell — solitary confinement with enhanced monitoring. At this moment, a supervisor could have ticked the box for “residential treatment” on a form to transfer him to Dixon. That did not happen, according to records and depositions.

Around this time, he asked to be placed back on his medication but nothing seems to have come of it, records show.

By mid-August, he said he was visualizing “people that were not there,” according to case notes. At first, he was acting more aggressively, once flicking water at a guard through a hole in his cell door. But his energy ebbed, and he gradually migrated downward — from standing to bunk to floor.

“I’m having a breakdown,” he confided to a Wexford employee.

At the time, inmates in Illinois were required to declare an official hunger strike before prison officials would initiate protocols, including blood testing or forced feedings. But when a guard asked Mr. Johnson why he would not eat, he said he was “fasting,” as opposed to starving himself, and no action seems to have been taken.

‘Tell me this is OK!’

Lt. Matthew Morrison, one of the few people at Danville to take a personal interest in Mr. Johnson, reported seeing a white rind around his mouth in early September. He told other staff members the cell gave off “a death smell,” according to a deposition.

On Sept. 5, they moved Mr. Johnson to one of six cells adjacent to the prison’s small, bare-bones infirmary. Prison officials finally placed him on the official hunger strike protocol without his consent.

Mr. Morrison, in his deposition, said he was troubled by the inaction of the Wexford staff, and the lack of urgency exhibited by the medical director, Dr. Justin Young.

On Sept. 5, Mr. Morrison approached Dr. Young to express his concerns, and the doctor agreed to order blood and urine tests. But Dr. Young lived in Chicago, and was on site at the prison about four times a week, according to Mr. Kaplan. Friday, Sept. 6, 2019, was not one of those days.

Mr. Morrison arrived at work that morning, expecting to find Mr. Johnson’s testing underway. A Wexford nurse told him Dr. Young believed the tests could wait.

Mr. Morrison, stunned, asked her to call Dr. Young.

“He’s good till Monday,” Dr. Young responded, according to Mr. Morrison.

“Come on, come on, look at this guy! You tell me this is OK!” the officer responded.

Eventually, Justin Duprey, a licensed nurse practitioner and the most senior Wexford employee on duty that day, authorized the test himself.

Mr. Morrison, thinking he had averted a disaster, entered the cell and implored Mr. Johnson into taking the tests. He refused.

So prison officials obtained approval to remove him forcibly from his cell.

‘Oh, my God’

What happened next is documented in video taken from cameras held by officers on the extraction team and obtained by The Times through a court order.

Mr. Johnson is scarcely recognizable as the neatly groomed 21-year-old captured in a cellphone picture a few months earlier. His skin is ashen, eyes fixed on the middle distance. He might be 40. Or 60.

At first, he places his hands forward through the hole in his cell door to be cuffed. This is against procedure, the officers shout. His hands must be in back.

He will not, or cannot, comply. He wanders to the rear of his cell and falls hard. Two blasts of pepper spray barely elicit a reaction. The leader of the tactical team later said he found it unusual and unnerving.

The next video is in the medical unit. A shield is pressed to his chest. He is in agony, begging for them to stop, as two nurses attempt to insert a catheter.

Then they move him, half-conscious and limp, onto a wheelchair for the blood draw.

For the next 20 minutes, the Wexford nurse performing the procedure, Angelica Wachtor, jabs hands and arms to find a vessel that will hold shape. She winces with each puncture, tries to comfort him, and grows increasingly rattled.

“Oh, my God,” she mutters, and asks why help is not on the way.

She did not request assistance or discuss calling 911, records indicate.

“Can you please stop — it’s burning real bad,” Mr. Johnson said.

Soon after, a member of the tactical team reminds Ms. Wachtor to take Mr. Johnson’s vitals before taking him back to his cell. She would later tell Dr. Young she had been unable to able to obtain his blood pressure.

“You good?” one of the team members asks as they are preparing to leave.

“Yeah, I’ll have to be,” she replies in the recording.

Officers lifted him back onto his bunk, leaving him unconscious and naked except for a covering draped over his groin. His expressionless face is visible through the window on the cell door as it closes.

‘Cardiac arrest.’

Mr. Duprey, the nurse practitioner, had been sitting inside his office after corrections staff ordered him to shelter for his own protection, he said. When he emerged, he found Ms. Wachtor sobbing, and after a delay, he was let into the cell. Finding no pulse, Mr. Duprey asked a prison employee to call 911 so Mr. Johnson could be taken to a local emergency room.

The Wexford staff initiated CPR. It did not work.

At 3:38 p.m., the paramedics declared Markus Mison Johnson dead.

Afterward, a senior official at Danville called the Johnson family to say he had died of “cardiac arrest.”

Lisa Johnson pressed for more information, but none was initially forthcoming. She would soon receive a box hastily crammed with his possessions: uneaten snacks, notebooks, an inspirational memoir by a man who had served 20 years at Leavenworth.

Later, Shiping Bao, the coroner who examined his body, determined Mr. Johnson had died of severe dehydration. He told the state police it “was one of the driest bodies he had ever seen.”

For a long time, Ms. Johnson blamed herself. She says that her biggest mistake was assuming that the state, with all its resources, would provide a level of care comparable to what she had been able to provide her son.

She had stopped accepting foster care children while she was raising Markus and his siblings. But as the months dragged on, she decided her once-boisterous house had become oppressively still, and let local agencies know she was available again.

“It is good to have children around,” she said. “It was too quiet around here.”

Read by Glenn Thrush

Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro .

Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice. He joined The Times in 2017 after working for Politico, Newsday, Bloomberg News, The New York Daily News, The Birmingham Post-Herald and City Limits. More about Glenn Thrush

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Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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Health-Illness Continuum and Patient Experience Essay
The health-illness continuum belongs to the number of concepts in healthcare that facilitate patient evaluations and allow generalizing on clients' condition. Proposed more than forty years ago, the idea changed the ways to understand health and reduced unnecessary simplification in that regard. This essay examines the concept in question ...
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The health-illness continuum is a crucial concept that highlights the dynamic nature of health and illness, emphasizing the need for holistic approaches to well-being. This essay aims to explore the significance of understanding and addressing the health-illness continuum for individuals and society as a whole.
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The health-illness continuum, also termed the illness-wellness continuum, is a graphical illustration of the well-being concept. Essentially, it proposes that wellbeing encompasses mental and emotional health, and the presence or absence of illness (Moreira et al., 2020). The health-illness concept lies on the fundamental basis that relying on ...
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The health-illness continuum is a concept that reflects a person's overall wellness graphically. Presented by John W. Travis in 1972, this model is a continuous and non-static system of transitional human states from the movement of the bottom to the center, the top, or the reverse (Kishan, 2020).
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Human experience is a complex and multifaceted concept that encompasses a wide range of emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes. One of the most significant aspects of human experience is how it is affected by health and illness. The health-illness continuum is a framework that can help us understand how human experience changes as we move ...
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The health-illness continuum is based on this idea and is a visual representation of a patient's health. This model was created in 1972 by Travis and is still widely used nowadays (Hinkle & Cheever, 2018). It is relevant and significant to patient care since it allows evaluating people's state of health by defining their position on the scale.
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Introduction. Illness-Wellness continuum is an illustration which proposed that the well-being of an individual is composed of the mental consciousness, emotional health and the state of whether a person has an illness or not. This concept was proposed by Travis in the year 1972. The healthy condition of a person varies with times where one ...
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The health-illness continuum has significantly impacted my approach to providing better healthcare. One of the areas that the continuum has impacted is the promotion of value and dignity (Fex et al., 2011). The continuum helped me to understand the value of education and awareness in promoting overall healthcare.
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Health-Illness Continuum and Patient Experience Essay

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